Abstract

Cancer is one of the main problems in public health worldwide. Despite rapid advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer,
the efficacy of current treatment strategies is still limited. There are promising new results in animal models whereby mesenchymal
stem cells (MSCs) can be used as vehicles for targeted therapies. The use of MSCs as therapeutic biological vehicles in cell therapy
has several advantages, including immune-silence, tumor tropism, easy and rapid isolation, ex vivo expansion, multilineage
differentiation and the capacity to deliver a number of therapeutic agents. Some studies have shown that the microenvironment of
the tumor provides a preferential niche for homing and survival of MSCs. Here, we have highlighted various applications of MSCs in
cancer gene therapy.